Solomon Ratt: cihcipiscikwân / Rolling Head (th-dialect)

So what is all this storytelling about anyway?

Before I was whisked off to the residential school my parents (mostly my mother) would tell us our traditional stories of wîsahkîcâhk. Once I was at the school I no longer heard these stories since I was home only in the summer months and traditional stories were only told in the winter. These stories contain lessons on how to survive in our world which is always in flux.

In the first story of the wîsahkîcâhk cycle called “cihcipiscikwân – Rolling Head” we can find all the teachings of the Circle of Life:

there are the four cardinal points in the flight of wîsahkîcâhk and his younger brother as they flee from the evil Rolling Head;

in the various characters who are in the story are represented four mode of mobility: walkers, swimmers, flyer, and crawlers;

four stages of life: infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and old age;

four orders of life: human, animal, plant, and mineral;

four elements: earth, fire, water, and air;

four essential requirements for a healthy life: protection, nourishment, growth, and wholeness;

four aspects of human nature: emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual.

When we no longer tell our stories we lose all this.

In the video above, Sol gives a new retelling of the initial narrative of the Cree Trickster Cycle. The table below provides the corresponding text, in Cree and in English.

Long ago, as it were, there lived in a lone lodge, a man and a woman, along with their two children, two boys; one boy was almost a teen, the other boy a mere toddler. They raised their children on their own, in the wilderness, on the sacred land. They lived happily with each other: every day the man went into the bush to hunt and they seldom ran out of food eat because he was a good hunter indeed.

The man said nothing, but made up his mind to do some investigating in order to help her if it were possible. So one day he went away, merely pretending to go on a hunt. He hid in the bush along the path she usually followed.

“mahti kâ-itôtahk,” itîthihtam.

“Let me see what she does,” he thought.

Action 4

[Focalization]

He saw her coming. Something in her eager gait so aroused his curiosity that he followed her, hiding in the bushes quickly whenever she slowed down.

He saw her stop by an old, decaying, stump (mound caused by uprooted tree). She straightened her dress and ran her fingers through her hair. Then she picked up a stick from the ground and tapped on the stump.

Mumbling to herself, she started off. On her way out of the camp she paused by the fire, seeming to tie her moccasins tighter for the long journey ahead. As soon as she was out of sight her husband rushed to the fire and saw a piece of sinew from her moccasin lace contracting in the fire. He knew it was an act of magic to make shorter the distance she had to go.

Setting the sinew aside on a wet leaf on the ground he quickly went into the lodge and dressed in her finery, dressing like a woman. Arming himself with a knife, he marched into the bush to where he had seen his wife playing with the snakes and, like her, tapped on the stump.

And sure enough, as before long the snakes crawled out of the stump. As quickly as they came, the man severed their heads, killing all but one, and a small one at that. To this lone survivor he pronounced his decree.

“Your mother is not well,” he told them, “I am going to make a broth for her to drink to make her well but if you hear she doesn’t drink it, you must run for your lives! Here are things that will be useful when danger approaches: this awl will provide a hedge of thorns; this flint will form mountains; this piece of tree fungus will provide fire; and this beaver-tooth will form a great river. Now you must hide underground here and listen. Remember, if your mother doesn’t drink the broth, flee for your lives for she will no longer be your mother. Farewell my sons! May your lot be such that good may come to the Earth through this evil that has befallen us. In days to come, should you want to see me, look up to the Northern skies, for I shall be there next to the North Star for he will protect me.”

The man hid his sons in a hole under a blanket and forbade every object that was in their dwelling to tell the woman anything. Unfortunately, he missed a small stone that had slipped under the blanket. Then he made his broth from the dead snakes.

In the meantime, the man had been making preparations; he had pulled a net over the door; and he stood, with axe in hand, ready for his wife’s return. She approached furiously but on entering the lodge, her head became stuck in the net. She screamed in rage and frustration. Quickly the man severed her head from the Trunk. As the Head tumbled to the ground it yelled at the Trunk.

Though enmeshed in the net the Trunk grabbed the man and they struggled inside the lodge, rolling from one side to the other from East to West, from North to South. Their struggle was so fierce that they eventually worked their way into the heavens in their frenzy and they became stars.

Even today you can see them: the man is the Big Dipper and the Trunk chasing him is the Little Dipper; the Little Dipper, however, can’t get too close to the Big Dipper for Polaris, the North Star, stays close to protect the man.

Meanwhile, inside the lodge the severed head, this is now cihcipiscikwân – Rolling Head, rolls about asking the utensils where her children had gone. None spoke except for a small stone who had not heard the man’s admonishment not to talk.

The small stone told the head that the man had hidden the boys in a hole under the blanket. Cihcipiscikwân – The Rolling Head, immediately gave chase!

Ever nearer came the voice of his mother. He remembered the gifts that his father had given him and setting his brother down he threw the first of these, the awl - oskâcihk, behind him. Immediately a forest of thorns grew, stretching from the south to the north. The Rolling Head was stopped for she could not find an opening anywhere.

She went up and down but the huge hedge of thorns stretched from sea to sea. Then all of a sudden there came a sound from the hedge and Rolling Head stopped to listen. She saw a huge serpent chewing its way through the thorns. Rolling Head ran straight for the path made by the Serpent, crushing it in its hurry to go after the boys.

Ever nearer came the voice of his mother. Wîsahkîcâhk took the second of the gifts, the ahpit - flint that his father had given him and setting his brother down he threw this behind him. Mountians sprang up from where the flint hit the ground blocking the Rolling Head. She was stopped once again for she could not find an opening anywhere.

Rolling Head went up and down the mountain range but could not find an opening. Suddenly she heard a sound of someone chewing through the mountains. She stopped. She saw a giant Beaver coming through the mountains. She immediately ran straight for the beaver’s trail crushing it in her haste to go after the boys.

Ever nearer came the voice of his mother. Wîsahkîcâhk took the third of the gifts, the posâkan – birch fungus, that his father had given him and setting his brother down he threw this behind him. Fire immediately sprang up from where the fungus had hit the ground blocking the Rolling Head. She was stopped once again for she could not find an opening anywhere.

Ever nearer came the voice of his mother. Wîsahkîcâhk was so tired from running and carrying his younger brother on his back. He took the last of the gifts, the amiskowîpit – beaver tooth, that his father had given him, However before he could set his brother down he dropped the beaver tooth in front of him. A great river immediately sprang up from where the beaver tooth had hit the ground trapping the boys with Rolling Head not far from them.

Rolling Head called the Bittern and tried to convince him to take her across but at first the Bittern refused. Rolling Head flattered him and flattered him some more until he agreed to take her across. The Bittern told Rolling Head not to step on his sore neck. As they got close to the opposite shore cihcipiscikwân got excited, so excited that she jumped up and down, accidentally stepping on the Bittern’s sore neck. Reacting to the pain the Bittern dumped her into the water.